Monthly Archives: November 2010

Old Globe by ToastyKen, shared under a Creative Commons license. Dear Atticus, Today is the last day of November, so . . . we did it! Except for the part where we still have labor and delivery and sleepless nights and the terrible twos and starting school and soccer games and piano lessons and eye […]

For National Blog Posting Month, I wrote a letter every day to my unborn son, Atticus. He’s due just after Christmas, so I have been thinking about him a lot. Thanks for stopping by to see my Christmas decorations! Dear Atticus, In this house, we really like holidays. From Abraham Lincoln’s birthday to the 4th […]

Dear Atticus, For as long as I can remember, I have been fascinated with words. They come together to tell a story, they play and bounce off one another in poetry and in song. When the tone and the pacing and the detail are just right, something magical happens. I have been reading since I […]

That is our favorite Advent book, and we highly recommend it. The Christmas Mystery by Jostein Gaarder. Dear Atticus, Tomorrow is the first Sunday of Advent, the time the church uses to prepare for the Christmas holiday. For the next few weeks, we will sing songs like “Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus” and “O Come, […]

Dear Atticus, A few weeks ago, your dad asked me if I would rather that you be a television watcher or a video game player. Though I was both of those things growing up, I told him that, if I had to choose, I’d rather that you play video games. I remember the stories being […]

Dear Atticus, Today is Thanksgiving! It’s a holiday I love because it centers on food, family, and gratitude. Your dad loves Thanksgiving, too. He has to have certain foods or it just doesn’t count. We are particularly fond of bacon-wrapped green beans. I hope you like them when I have some later today. By the […]

Dear Atticus, We had a doctor’s appointment again today. I had planned to tell you about it, but it turns out there’s not much to tell. We were in and out in under 30 minutes. You are measuring exactly as you should, and your heartbeat is still sounding very good. The one thing that I […]

Compressed music by Ferrari + caballos + fuerza = cerebro Humano. Shared under a Creative Commons license. Dear Atticus, I thought it might be fun to share a playlist of songs that I have been listening to since April. 1. “Wake Up” by Arcade Fire – From the trailer of the movie Where the Wild […]

Another letter from Mike. Dear Atticus, Your mom asked me to write to you about music. I think music occupies the same space in my life as books do in her life. I could not live without music just like she could not live without books. I remember when I was five or six going […]

Dear Atticus, I said it had been a hard week, and I am sure that you know that somehow or another. I am not sure how it works, exactly, whether you have heard me talking to your dad or you can just sense my emotions. It is still strange to think of you always being […]

Dear Atticus, There’s a blog that I have read for several years, as the author has moved from single life (with dogs) to a family with her husband (and dogs), through infertility (and dogs), and into the world of adoption. Also, she has dogs. Late last night, after I was in bed, she announced that […]

Dear Atticus, The expectation is that I will talk to you about my passion, about books and reading and how we cannot wait to share that with you, but it has been hard for me to formulate my thoughts on that topic. Before I talk to you about those things, I find that there is […]

Dear Atticus, I can’t claim to know much of anything about being a parent, but I have worked with a lot of kids at school. I have learned a thing or two about what is really important about a person and how to pick my battles. So there are some things that I am prepared […]

“All I ask of you is one thing: please don’t be cynical. I hate cynicism — it’s my least favorite quality and it doesn’t lead anywhere. Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you’re kind, amazing things will happen.” -Conan O’Brien on […]

Dear Atticus, Over the summer, we had several conversations with friends about what it means to raise children in an environment where they value church and God and truth and the Bible without that turning to legalism or didacticism. The truth is that we don’t really know the answer to that question. But here are […]

“Lift your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing.” -Isaiah 40:26 Dangling stars by Richard Bott. Shared under a Creative Commons license. […]

Dear Atticus, That’s a picture of the shelf we hung on your wall. I wanted to tell you a little bit about it, since we have been trying to fill your room with things that are important to us and have meaning. The pictures in the shelf are pictures that I took (or manipulated) that […]

From the moment you arrived here I’ve been utterly amazed Astonished at your level of perfection So it breaks my heart in pieces to imagine all the ways You’ll get hurt in spite of my protection ‘Cause someday I’ll have to send you like a soldier off to school And the lesson you will learn […]

Dear Atticus, On Wednesday, we had another appointment to find out how you are doing. This one was, finally, with my regular midwife that I see at my yearly exams. Your dad hadn’t met her before, but he also liked her a lot. When I first told her back in December that we were thinking […]

Mike has offered to write a few letters, too. Here’s his first offering. Dear Atticus, I am a boy. Just like you. I’ve played Cowboys and Indians. I’ve played Cops and Robbers. I’ve had my shares of scrapes and bruises from doing boy things, which really just means I acted before thinking through my decisions. […]